Blogging Update!

Everyone has been doing a great job working on their blogs so far this year.

Today I want to talk about a few small ways that you can make your blogs even stronger moving on and take a look at some of your classmates' blogs that exceeded standards the past few weeks!

1. To show a new paragraph, instead of trying to indent, just skip a line and keep all of your words aligned left.  This just makes it easier on the eyes for the reader.

2.  Create a title that is more clever than the name of your book! Include what you're writing about.

3. To add a picture, do an image search online, and then click so that only the image is on the webpage.  Copy that URL.  In the draft form of your blog, click on the picture icon and click "add from a URL" and paste the link.  The picture will download.  Add a caption below it before you post the picture if you need to give credit to where it came from.

4. To add a link to another source, have the URL copied.  Then highlight the word or phrase that you want to link from and click on the "link" tab at the top of the post draft.  Copy the URL.

5. Finished Book Lists: Be sure that you have added this gadget to your sidebar and that you update it weekly or bi-weekly.

6. Blog link lists: visit the link lists on the sidebar of this blog to find at least 4 other people who you want to read and comment on regularly.  Then add those people to your blog list.  Add this blog as well, so that you can have easy access to it if you ever need support!

7. EDIT! I couldn't believe how many people didn't capitalize or check their grammar! Please, y'all.  Please.

For the time being, starting now, the minimum requirement for blog length is 3 Paragraphs.  A sample structure might look like: 

Paragraph 1: A lead, an introduction to the story (context), your focus

Paragraph 2: Unpack your focus with textual evidence and elaboration

Paragraph 3: Extension: connect your focus to the world around you, yourself or another text.  Explain why this matters beyond the page.


Finally, let's take a look at some of the blogs that blew me away as I've been reading them! I call these ALL STAR MENTORS!!  Use them not only to get your brain thinking, but as strong mentor texts to use as a guide as a writer!

Isaac and Milo in 806, Sarah and Carmen in 809 and Dula in 803 wrote great responses to their independent reading books!  Read them to be inspired!